Canada 150: Things You May Not Have Known About Canada

"Sioux Playing Ball" by Charles Deas circa 1843

Though most people think hockey is Canada's National Sport, it's more of the national pastime and it's actually Lacrosse that is holds that claim. Played by the native Canadian Algonquin tribes in and around the St. Lawrence valley and Great Lakes regions, it was first seen by Jesuit priests in 1630, who called it the "la crosse", which is French for "the stick".

Actual box score from game in 1946

Quite a few people seem to know that the game of basketball was invented by a Canadian but not many know that the first Canadian team to play in the NBA was the Toronto Huskies, way back in 1946.

Molson Brewery circa 1800

The oldest brewery in North America is Molson's, which started making beer in Montreal in 1786. Sadly, it is now owned by Coors, an American brewery.

St. John's harbour in the 1500's

The oldest city in Canada is St.John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, founded in 1583.

Even though Canada was established in 1867, it did not get it's official flag until 1965.



























Canada has more doughnut shops per capita than anywhere else in the world. Tim who?

The green ink used for American money was invented at McGill University in Montreal in 1857.

Wood Buffalo National Park, in Alberta, is bigger than the entire country of Switzerland. The park is home to the worlds' largest herd of roaming Wood Bison (there are no buffalo in Canada!) and also the last known nesting site of Whooping Cranes.

That's what I said...there are no buffalo in Canada, or North America for that matter. Bison are a distinct breed unto themselves ( Bison bison), though they are related to Buffalo since both are in the Bovid family. The only other bison in the world are European Bison ( Bison Bonasus)

Carnival Cocktails for Cancer 2017

This is a bit of a late post about a great event I recently attended called Carnival Cocktails For Cancer, but better late than never and certainly well worth the mention. It's an annual fundraiser for the Canadian Cancer Centre and it's not only a lot of fun but gives you a chance to sample some fine food and libations from a lot of amazing eateries in Calgary, as well as a few from Edmonton, Vancouver and Toronto. Think...Proof, Model Milk , Anejo and her sister restaurant Blanco Cantina, Provision and  Native Tongues Taquria, to name a few locals. And how about Bar Clementine and Meat from Edmonton or Shameful Tiki Room in Vancouver and Toronto, both of whom brought all their goodness to Calgary to help the cause. 

The fundraising event is the brainstorm of Jesse Willis and Laura Dunnigan in honour of Jennifer Gardiner, aka Jen UnPlugged. Jen's journey is an amazing story unto itself and the link will give you a good idea of what she is all about, so please check it out for some inspiration. 

This year, the fabulous and fun event raised $66,000.00 for the Cancer Society, so kudos to everyone who helped make Carnival Cocktails For Cancer a huge success!!

The "2 Inch Hot Dog"

Rouge used "Frozen Memories" for this cool sculpture

Lovely needlepoint! haha

Buckskin Dunny brought his Wild West Show to the carnival

Mad as a hatter I'd say!

"Step right up, folks!"

Kathey is Kurious?

Behind the red velvet curtain.....

Artist Lee Nielsen did a live painting, with a carnival theme of course

Fortunes told by Sugar Water

The mystic eye

The mystery box

Renowned artist Jason Gogo donated this beautiful triptych to the silent auction

Jesse Willis, of Vine Arts and Proof, and Laura Dunnigan, of Blakes Law Firm, were the masterminds of the Carnival

Ride For Dad 2017

BlueCircle was proud to be a part of the 2017 Calgary Motorcycle Ride For Dad, which was held this past weekend and was, by all accounts, a great success. No exact numbers at this time but kudos to the hard working Executive and volunteers who spent many, many hours of their time and a whole lot of energy to put this event together and run so smoothly. 

Here's a sampling of photos of the day and watch for a future post where I share the results of the fundraiser for prostate cancer research through the Prostate Cancer Centre.

BlueCircle gave this small cheque to Co-Chair Ron Parkinson

Lots of volunteers help this great cause

Many riders join the event to honour someone they knew that was affected by prostate cancer

Troy, from Ride Stop n Go, was riding on his new Indian

This ride is a family event

The police were there to help out, with this member riding his dual sport bike

Tina was the VIP guest of BlueCircle

Based on last years' ride, the Ride For Dad donated almost $43000 to prostate cancer research with Dr. Tarek Bismar

More police presence to help escort eh riders on to the highway

Alberta Sheriffs also play an integral role in making this event work

The 2017 Calgary Ride For Dad Executive 

Troy and Paul with some of the 300+ bikes that showed up to ride

Dr. Bismar's family came to support the ride too

We're getting ready to fire up the bikes

Michelle rides ad volunteers on the RFD Executive

The "big cheque" presentation of $10,000 from BlueCircle

Ride to Work Day

Don't forget that Monday, June 19th is "Ride To Work Day". See you on the road!

ROTM Winners Circle

As mentioned in the recent post ROTM, we had a great time on our ride in and around the Millarville area with a whole bunch of great people, ending up at Big Sky BBQ Pit for some food and beverages.
Of course we gave away a bunch of stuff to those who joined in and filled out a ballot, plus the extra ballot given to anyone who pre-registered. here's the photos of our winners, along with Angela and myself.

Cullin won himself a fill up of gas for his bike

Mike also won a tasty meal for him and a guest at the Blue Star Diner.

$50 gift card for Cycle Works Calgary went to Bernie 

Ron also got to fill up the tank on his bike with some gas cards he won

Since he pre-registered, Cullin got his name in the draw twice and won two prizes. This grand prize was courtesy of the good people at Motology School, who gave away a basic course which Cullin planned to give to his brother. Here's a photo of the lucky winner, along with Rebecca Wong of Motology, and Ang and myself. 

Tornados: Ultra Scary Version

After my recent post about the twister that hit Alberta last week , titled "Yard Work Must Get Done", I thought this video of a really big and nasty tornado down in Colorado would be a good follow up. Not that the Three Hills, Alberta twister couldn't have been deadly, but when you see this massive beast in the video, it really gets the heart pumping. The video is 5 minutes long and really gets going about midway through.

video shot by Reed Timmer

Yard Work Must Get Done!

Photo by Cecilia Wessels

Yes, a tornado can be terrifying and one should take care when the alert goes out. Just recently, one did touch down in Three Hills Alberta, but Theunis Wessels was 'fully aware' of the twister behind him and knew it was far enough away to not be an imminent threat, so he carried on calmly with his yard work. This photo was taken by his wife and obviously, with such a dramatic scenario taking place in the background, it went viral. It sure does look surreal, as did the time lapse of the tornado as posted below, taken by an unknown photographer.

Two Wheel Sunday 2017

Two Wheel Sunday Motorcycle Association is an event that brings all motorcycle groups, shops, riders and enthusiasts to one place at one time and our 2017 version was the biggest and best version yet, if over 3000 attendees is any indication!

BlueCircle is ready for guests

For the fourth year in a row, we not only had great weather, but a record number of booths and attendees. It looked a bit suspect in the early hours of the day but good motorcycle karma kept the clouds at bay and not a drop of rain fell during the day of the event.

Many thanks go to the core group of people who put this thing together by taking on key positions...Darcy Lucyk, Bobby Baum, Gail Lane and Jack Burrows...along with several other people who take on some of the bigger jobs required to make TWS run as smoothly as it did. Way to go crew! We couldn't put on a show like this without some corporate help either, with major contributions from Cycle Works Calgary and BlueCircle Insurance. Both are involved in a big way with the motorcycle community outside of their own direct business so thank you!!

And also, many thanks to Lucid Moto and Jack Burrows for arranging to have the beautifuul blue Duc at our booth. So nice to look at and certainly a draw for the visitors. Not only did we have the cool blue bike, we had a lovely and energetic young artist, Taylor Odynski, at our booth, showing her talents by doing a live painting of the Ducati. Tay has done many quite a few amazing bike portraits, a unique and interesting way to capture the personality of your own bike!

Check out some photos from the day.... 

Lucid Moto had a huge display of a lot of their cool custom bikes

HOG Riders group was setting up the BBQ, where we generate all our funds for the charity

Ride Stop n Go and their colour coordinated footwear to match Troy's 2017 Indian

Yes, shoes to match that vintage green

CJAY92 DJ  Graeme Reaper

Our pals at Ride For Dad Calgary

And The Man-Van, funded in part by The Ride For Dad and BlueCircle

Checking out some of the bikes

Vince Aiello from Cycle Works Calgary chats with artist Taylor Odynski

Did we mention that TWS is a family event

  

BlueCircle was involved in 3 awesome motorcycle events in the span of 6 days (ROTM for our  Tuesday evening ride and CJAY Rocks for Saturday's cruise)  finishing off with the 4th Annual Two Wheel Sunday on Sunday. Even though it's only just completed, we can hardly wait for next year!!